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THE ONE 



POWER vs. CONGRESS! 



ADDEESS 



HON. CHAELES SUMNER 



MUSIC HALL, BOSTON, 



October 2, 1866. 



-^0 




f 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 

No. 4 Spring Lane. 

1866. 



t. 



■Sii'-i" 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. Riesident: — 

It is now more than a year since I last had the honor of address- 
ing my fellow-citizens of Massachusetts. On that occasion I dwelt 
on what seemed to be the proper policy towards the States recently 
in rebellion — insisting that it was our duty, while renouncing indem- 
nity for the past, to obtain at least security for the future ; and 
this security, I maintained, could be found only in the exclusion 
of ex-rebels from political power, and in irreversible guarantees 
especially applicable to the national creditor and the national 
freedman. During the intervening months, the country has 
been agitated by this question, which was perplexed by an unex- 
pected difference between the President and Congress. The 
President insists upon installing ex-rebels in political power, and 
sets at naught the claim of guarantees and the idea of security 
for the future, while he denies to Congress any control over this 
question, and takes it all to himself. Congress has asserted its 
control, and has endeavored to shut out ex-rebels from political 
power and to establish guarantees, to the end that there might be 
security for the future. Meanwhile, the States recently in rebel- 
lion, with the exception of Tennessee, are without representation 
in Congress. Thus stands the case. 

The Two Parties in the Controversy. 

The two parties in the controversy are the President on the one 
side, and the people of the United States in Congress assembled 
on the other side : the first representing the Executive ; the second 
representing the Legislative. It is the One Man Power vs. 
Congress. Of course, each of these performs its part in the 
government ; but, until now, it has always been supposed that 
the Legislative gave the law to the Executive, and not that the 
Executive gave the law to the Legislative. Perhaps this irrational 
assumption becomes more astonishing when it is considered that 
the actual President, besides being the creature of an accident, 
is inferior in ability and character, while the House of Representa- 
tives is eminent in both respects. A President, who has already 
sunk below any other president, even Buchanan, madly under- 
takes to give the law to a House of Representatives, which, there 
is reason to believe, is the best that has sat since the formation of 
the Constitution. Thus, in loo'- Ing at the parties, we are tempted 
to exclaim i Such a P^esid^ dictating to such a Congress ! It 



was said of Gustavus Adolphiis that he had drilled the Diet of 
Sweden to vote or be silent at the word of command; but 
Andrew Johnson is not Gustavus Adolplius, and the American 
Congress is not the Diet of Sweden. 

' Irreversible Guarantees must be had. 

The question at issue is one of the vastest ever presented for 
practical decision, involving the name and weal of this Bepublic 
at home and abroad. It is not a military question ; it is a ques- 
tion of statesmanship. We are to secure by counsel what was 
won by war. Failure now will make the war itself a failure ; 
surrender now will undo all our victories. Let the President 
prevail, and straightway the plighted faith of the Republic will 
be broken ; the national creditor and the national freedman will 
be sacrificed ; the Rebellion itself will flaunt its insulting power ; 
the whole country, in length and breadth, will be disturbed ; 
and the rebel region will .be handed over to misrule and anarchy. 
Let Congress prevail and all this will be reversed ; the plighted 
faith of the Republic will be preserved ; the national creditor and 
the national freedman will be protected ; the Rebellion itself will 
be trampled out forever; the whole country, in length and 
breadth, will be at peace ; and the rebel region, no longer harassed 
by controversy and degiiaded by injustice, will enjoy the richest 
fruits of security and reconciliation. To labor for this cause may 
well tempt the young and rejoice the old. 

And now, to-day, I protest again against, any admission of 
ex-rebels to the great partnership of this Republic, and I renew 
the claim of irreversible guarantees especially applicable to the 
national creditor and the national freedman ; insisting now, as I 
did a year ago, that it is our duty, while renouncing indemnity 
for the past, to obtain at least security for the future. At 
the close of a terrible war — which has wasted our treasure — 
which has murdered our fellow-citizens— which has filled the land 
with funerals— which has maimed and wounded multitudes 
whom death had spared — and which has broken up the very 
foundations of peace— our first duty is to provide safeguards 
for the future. This can be only by provisions, sure, fundamental 
and irrepealable, wliich shall fix forever the results of the war— 
the obligations of government— and the equal rights of all. Such 
is the suggestion of common prudence and of self-defence, as 
well as of common honesty. To this end we must make haste 
slowly. States which precipitated themselves out of Congress 
must not be permitted to precipitate themselves back. They must 
not be allowed to enter those halls which they treasonably 
deserted, until we have every reasonable assurance of future good 
conduct. We must not admit them, and then repent our folly. 
Those words, once used in the British Parliament and revived by 
Mr. Webster, furnish the key to our duty :— 



<' I hear a lion in the lobby roar; 
Say, Mr. Speaker, shall I shut the door ? 
Or shall we rather let the monster in. 
Then see if we can shut liim out again ? " 

I am against letting the monster in, until he is no longer 
terrible in mouth or paw. 

No Unnecessary Delay. 

But while holding this ground, I desire to disclaim every senti- 
ment of vengeance or punishment, and also every thought of 
delay or procrastination. Here I do not yield to the President or 
to any other person. Nobody can be more anxious than I am to 
see this chasm closed forever. 

There is a long way and a short way. There is a long time and a 
short time. If there be any whose policy is for the longest way 
or for the longest time, I am not of the number. I am for the 
shortest way and also for the shortest time. And I object to the 
interference of the President, because, whether intentionally or 
unintentionally, he interposes delay and keeps the chasm open. 
More than all otliers, the President, by his officious assumptions, 
has lengthened the way and lengthened the time. Of this there 
can be no doubt. 

A Lost Opportunity. 

From all quarters we learn that after the surrender of Lee, the 
rebels were ready for any terms, if they could escape with their 
lives. They were vanquished, and they knew it. The rebellion 
was crushed, and they knew it. They hardly expected to save a 
small fraction of their property. They did not expect to save their 
political power. They were too sensible not to see that partici- 
pants in rebellion could not pass at once into the partnership of 
government. They made up their, minds to exclusion. They 
were submissive. There was nothing they would not do, even to 
the extent of enfranchising their freedmen and providing for them 
homesteads. Had the national government merely taken advan- 
tage of this plastic condition, it might have stamped Equal Rights 
upon the whole people, as upon molten wax, while it fixed the 
immutable conditions of permanent peace. The question of 
reconstruction would have been settled before it arose. It is sad 
to think that this was not done. Perhaps in all history there is 
no instance of such an opportunity lost. Truly should our 
country say in penitential supplication ; " We have left undone 
those things which we ought>' to have done ; and we have done 
those things which we ought not to have done." 

Do not take this on my authority. Listen to those on the spot, 
who have seen with their own eyes. A brave officer of our army 
wrote to me from Alabama, as follows : — 

" I believe the mass of the people could have been easily controlled, if 
none of the excepted classes had received pardon. These classes did not 



expect anything more than life, and even feared for that. Let me con- 
dense the whole subject. At the surrender, the South could have been 
moulded at will ; but it is now as stiff-necked and rebellious as ever." 

In the same vein another officer testifies from Texas, as follows :" 

" There is one thing, however, that is making against the speedy return 
of quietness, not only in this State, but throughout the entire South, and 
that is the reconstruction policy of President Johnson. It is doing more to 
unsettle this country than people who are not practical observers of its 
workings have any idea of. Before this policy was made known the people 
were prepared to accept any thing. They expected to be treated as rebels, 
their leaders being punished and the property of others confiscated. But 
the moment it was made known all their assurance returned. Rebels have 
again become arrogant and exacting ; treason stalks through the land 
unabashed." 

This testimony might be multiplied indefinitely. From city and 
country, from highway and byway there is but one voice. When, 
therefore, the President, in opprobrious terms, complains of Con- 
gress as interposing delay, I reply to him, " No, Sir, it is you, who 
by unexpected and most perverse assumptions, have put off the 
glad day of security and reconciliation, which is so much longed 
for. It is you, who have inaugurated anew that malignant sec- 
tionalism^ which, so long as it exists, will keep this Union divided 
in fact, if not in name. Sir, you are the Disunionist." 

The Presidential Policy founded on two Blunders. 

Glance, if you please, at that Presidential Policy — so constantly 
called " my policy " — which is now so vehemently pressed upon 
the country, and you will find that it pivots on at least two alarm- 
ing blunders, as can be easily seen ; first, in setting up the One Man 
Povjer, as the source of jurisdiction over this great question ; and 
secondly, in using the One Man Poiver for the restoration of 
rebels to place and influence, so that good Unionists, whether 
white or black, are rejected, and the rebellion itself is revived in 
the new governments. Each of these assumptions is an enormous 
blunder. You will see that I use a mild term to characterize 
such a double-headed usurpation. 

The One Man Power. 

(1.) Pray, Sir, where in the Constitution do you find any 
sanction of the One Map, Poiver as the source of this extraordi- 
nary jurisdiction ? I had always supposed that the President was 
the Executive, bound to see the laws faithfully executed ; but not 
empowered to make laws. The Constitution expressly says : 
" The Executive Power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America." But the Legislative Power is else- 
where. According to the Constitution ; "• All Legislative Powers 
herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United 
States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Represeuta- 



tives." And yet the President has assumed legislative power, 
even to the extent of making laws and constitutions for States. 
You all know that at the close of the war, when the rebel States 
were without lawful governments, he assumed to supply them. 
In this business of reconstruction he assumed to determine who 
should vote, and also to affix conditions for adoption by the con- 
ventions. Look, if you please, at the character of this assump- 
tion. The President, from the executive mansion at Washington, 
reaches his long executive arm into certain States and dictates 
their constitutions. Surely there is nothing executive in this 
assumption. It is not even military. It is legislative, pure and 
simple, and nothing else. " It is an attempt by the One Man 
Power to do what can be done only by the legislative branch of 
the .government. And yet so perverse is the President in absorb- 
ing to himself all power over the reconstruction of the rebel 
States, that he insists that Congress must accept his work without 
addition or subtraction. He can impose conditions ; Congress 
cannot. He can determine who shall vote ; Congress cannot. 
His jurisdiction is not only complete, but exclusive. If all this 
be so, then has our President a most extraordinary power, never 
before dreamed of. He may exclaim with Louis XIV. : " The 
State, it is I ; " while, like this magnificent king, he sacrifices the 
innocent, and repeats that fatal crime, the revocation of the edict 
of Nantes. His whole "policy" is a " revocation " of all that 
has been promised, and all that we have a right to expect. 

Here it is well to note a distinction, which is not without 
importance in the discussion of the issue between the President 
and Congress. Nobody doubts that the President may during 
war govern any conquered territory as commander-in-chief, and 
for this purpose he may detail any military officer as military 
governor. But it is one thing to govern a State temporarily by 
military power, and quite another thing to create a constitution 
for a State which shall continue ivhen the military power has 
expired. The former is a military act, and belongs to the Presi- 
dent. The latter is a civil act, and belongs to Congress. On this 
distinction I stand, and this is not the first time that I have 
asserted it. Of course, the governments set up in this illegit- 
imate way are necessarily illegitimate, except so far as they may 
acquire validity from time or subsequent, recognition. It needs 
no learned chief justice of North Carolina solemnly to declare 
this. It is manifest from the nature of the case. 

But this illegitimacy becomes still more manifest, when it is 
known that the constitutions , which the President orders and tries 
to cram upon Congress have never been submitted to a popular 
vote. Each is the naked offspring of an illegitimate convention 
called into being by the President, in the exercise of an illegit- 
imate power. 

There is another provision of the Constitution, by which, 
according to a judgment of the Supreme Court of the United 



8 

States, this question is referred to Congress and not to the Presi- 
dent. I refer to the provision that " the United States shall guar- 
antee to every State in this Union, a republican government." 
On these words Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the Supreme 
Court, has adjudged, "that it rests with Congress to decide what 
government is the established one in a State ; as the United States 
guarantee to each State a republican government, Congress must 
necessarily decide what government is established in a State before 
it can determine whether it is republican or not ; and that 
undoubtedly a military government established as the permanent 
government of a State would not be a republican governmfent, 
and it would be the duty of Congress to overthrow it." (Luther 
vs. Borden, 7 Howard, Rep. 42.) But the President sets at 
naught this commanding text of the Constitution, reinforced by 
this positive judgment of the Supreme Court, and claims this 
extraordinary power for himself, to the exclusion of Congress. 
He is " the United States." In him the Republic is manifest. 
He can do all. Congress can do nothing. 

And now the whole country is summoned by the President to 
recognize State governments created by constitutions thus illegit- 
imate in origin and character. Without considering if they con- 
tain the proper elements of security for the future, or if they are 
republican in form ; and without any inquiry into the validity of 
their adoption ; — nay, in the very face of testimony, showing that 
they contain no elements of security for the future — that they are 
not republican in form — and that they have never been adopted 
by the loyal people, we are commanded to accept them ; and when 
we hesitate, the President himself, leading the outcry, assails us 
with angry vituperation, blunted, it must be confessed, by a 
coarseness without precedent and without bounds. It is well 
that such a cause has such an advocate. 

In thus setting up the One Man Poiver as a source of jurisdic- 
tion over this great question, the President has committed a blun- 
der of constitutional law, proceeding from an immense egotism, 
in which the little pronoun " I " plays a gigantic part. It is " I," 
vs. the people of the United States in Congress assembled. On 
this unnatural blunder I might say more ; but I have said enough. 
My present purpose is accomplished if I make you see it clearly. 

Giving Poi'jer to Ex- Rebels. 

(2.) The other blunder is of a different character. It is 
giving power to ex-rebels, at the expense of constant Unionists, 
white or black, and employing thenl in the work of reconstruc- 
tion, so that the new governments continue to represent the 
rebellion. This same blunder, when committed by one of the 
heroes of the war, was promptly overruled by the President him- 
self; but Andrew Johnson now does what Sherman was not 
allowed to do. The blunder is strange and unaccountable. 



Here the evidence is constant and cumulative. It begins with 
his first proclamation, which was for the reconstruction of North 
Carolina. Holden was appointed Provisional Governor, an office 
unknown to the law, and for which there was no provision, 
although it was notorious that he had been a member of the con- 
vention which adopted the Act of secession, and that he 
himself had signed it. Then came Perrj, Provisional Governor 
of South Carolina, who, besides holding a judicial station under 
the rebel government, was one of its Commissioners of Impress- 
ments. I have a rebel newspaper containing one of his advertise- 
ments in the latter character. There also was Parsons, Provi- 
sional Governor of Alabama, who in 1863 introduced into the 
legislature of that State formal resolutions tendering to Jefferson 
Davis " hearty thanks for his good labors in the cause of our 
common country, together with the assurance of continued sup- 
port ;" and afterwards, in 1864, denounced our national debt, 
exclaiming in the legislature, " Does any sane man suppose we 
will consent to pay their [the United States,] war debt, contracted 
in sending armies and navies to burn our towns and cities, to lay 
waste our country, whose soldiers have robbed and murdered our 
peaceful inhabitants ? " Such were the men appointed by the 
President to institute loyal governments. But this selection 
becomes more strange and unaccountable when it is considered 
that all this was done in defiance of law. 

There is a recent enactment of Congress, which requires that 
no person shall be appointed to any office of the United States, 
unless such office has been created by law. And there is another 
enactment of Congress, which provides that all officers, civil or 
military, before entering upon their official duties or receiving any 
salary or compensation, shall take an oath declaring that they have 
held no office under the Rebellion or given any aid thereto. In 
the face of these enactments, which are sufficiently explicit, the 
President began his work of reconstruction by appointing civilians 
to an office absolutely unknown to the law, when besides they 
could not take the required oath of office ; and to complete the 
disregard of Congress he fixed their salary and paid it out of the 
funds of the War Department. 

Of course such a proceeding was an instant encouragement and 
license to all ex-rebels, no matter how much blood was on their 
hands, Eebellion was at a premium. It was easy to see, that if 
these men were good enough to be governors of States, in defi- 
ance of Congress, all others in the same political predicament 
would be good enough for the inferior offices. And it was so. 
From top to bottom these States were organized by men who had 
been warring on their country. Ex-rebels were appointed by the 
governors or chosen by the people everywhere. Ex-rebels sat in 
conventions and in legislatures. Ex-rebels became judges, jus- 
tices of the peace, sheriffs and everything else, while the faithful 
Unionist, white or black, was rejected. As with Cordelia, his 

2 



10 

love was " according to his bond, nor more nor less ;" but all 
this was of no avail. How often during the war have I pleaded 
for such patriots and urged you to every effort for their redemp- 
tion ; and now, when our arms have prevailed, it is they who are 
cast down while the enemies of the Republic are exalted. The 
pirate Semmes returns from his ocean cruise to be chosen Probate 
Judge in Alabama. In New Orleans the rebel mayor at the 
time the city surrendered to the national flag is once more 
mayor, and employs his regained power in that terrible massacre 
which rises in judgment against the presidential policy. Persons 
are returned to Congress, whose service in the rebellion makes 
it impossible for them to take the oath of office, as in the case 
of Georgia, which selects as senators Herschell Y. Johnson, who 
was a senator of the rebel Congress, and Alexander H. Stephens, 
the vice-president of the rebellion. These are but instances ; but 
from these you may learn all. 

There is nothing in the reach of the President which he has not 
lavished on ex-rebels. The power of pardon and amnesty, like 
the power of appointment, has been used for them, by wholesale 
and retail. It would have been easy to affix a condition to every 
pardon, requiring that, before it took effect, the recipient should 
carve out of his estate a homestead for every one of his freedmen, 
and thus secure to each what they all covet so much, a piece of 
land. But the President did no such thing, although, in the 
words of the old writ, " often requested so to do." Such a con- 
dition would have helped the loyal freedman, rather than the 
rebel master. In the same spirit, while undertaking to determine 
who shall be voters, all colored persons, howsoever loyal, were 
disfranchised, while all white persons, except certain specified 
classes, although black with rebellion, were constituted voters 
on taking a simple oath of allegiance, thus giving to ex-rebels a 
prevailing power. 

Partisans of the Presidential " policy " are in the habit of 
declaring- that it is a continuation of the policy of the martyred 
Lincoln. This^is a mistake. Would that he could rise from his 
bloody shroud to repel the calumny ! But he has happily left his 
testimony behind, in words which all who have ears to hear can 
hear. On one occasion the martyr presented the truth bodily 
when he said, in a suggestive metaphor, that we must " build up 
from the sound materials ;" but his successor insists upon build- 
ing from materials rotten with treason and gaping with rebellion. 
On another occasion the martyr said that " an attempt to guar- 
antee and protect a revived State government, constructed in 
whole or in preponderating part from the very element against 
whose hostility and violence it is to, be protected, is simply 
absurd.''^ But this is the very thing which the President is now 
attempting. He is constructing State governments, not merely in 
preponderating part, but in lohole from the hostile element. There- 
fore, he departs openly from the policy of the martyred Lincoln. 



11 

The martyr says to his successor that his policy is " simply 
absurd." He is right, although he might say more than this. 
Its absurdity is too apparent. It is as if, in abolishing the Inqui- 
sition, the inquisitors had been continued under another name, 
and Torquemada had received a fresh license for cruelty. It is 
as if King Wilham, after the overthrow of James II., had made 
the infamous Jeffries Lord Chancellor. Common sense and 
common justice cry out against the outrage ; and yet this is the 
Presidential " policy " now so passionately commended to the 
American people. 

Government, according to Aristotle, is a " partnership," and I 
accept this term as especially applicable to our government. 
And now the President, in the exercise of the 0:ie Man Poiuer, 
decrees that communities lately in rebellion shall be taken at once 
into our " partnership." I object to the decree as dangerous to 
the Republic. I am not against pardon, clemency or magnanim- 
ity, except where they are at the expense of good men. I trust 
that they will always be practised ; but I insist that recent rebels 
shall not be admitted without proper precautions to the business 
of the firm. And I insist also that the One Man Power shall not 
be employed to force them into the firm. 

The President inconsistent with Himself. 

Such are two pivotal blunders of the President. It is not easy 
to see how he has fallen into these — so strong were his early pro- 
fessions the other way. The powers of Congress he had dis- 
tinctly admitted. Thus, as early as 24th July, 1865, he had sent 
to Sharkey, acting by his appointment as Provisional Governor of 
Mississippi, this despatch : " It must, however, be distinctly 
understood, that the restoration to which your proclamation 
refers tvill be subject to the ivill of Cong-ress." Nothing could 
be more positive ; and he was equally positive against the restora- 
tion of rebels to power. You do not forget that, in accepting his 
nomination as Vice-President, he rushed forward to declare that 
the rebel States must be remodelled ; that confiscation must be 
enforced, and that rebels must be excluded from the work of 
reconstruction. His language was plain and unmistakable. 
Announcing that " government must be fixed on the principles of 
eternal justice," he went on to declare, that, " if the man who 
gave his influence and his means to destroy the government 
should be permitted to participate in the great work of reorgan- 
ization, then all the precious blood so freely poured out will have 
been wantonly spilled, and all our victories go for naught." True ; 
very true. Then, in words of surpassing energy, he cried out, 
that " the great plantations must be seized and divided into small 
farms," and that " traitors should take a back seat in the work of 
restoration." Perhaps the true rule was never expressed vith more 
homely and vital force than in this last saying, often repeated in 
different forms : " For rebels, back seats." Add to this that other 



12 

saying so often repeated, " treason must be made odious," and 
you have two great principles of a just reconstruction, once 
proclaimed by the President, but now practically disowned by 
him. 

How the President fell. 

You will a.ic how the President fell. This is hard to say, 
certainly, without much plainness of speech. Mr. Seward openly 
confesses that he counselled the present fatal " policy." Unques- 
tionably Mr. Blair, father and son, did the same. So also, I 
doubt not, did Mr. Preston King. It is easy to see that Mr. 
Seward was not a wise counsellor. This is not his first costly 
blunder. In formal despatches he early announced that " the 
rights of the States and the condition of every human being will 
remain subject to exactly the same laws and forms of adminis- 
tration, whether the revolution shall succeed or whether it shall 
fail." And now he labors for the fulfilment of his own prophecy. 
Obviously from the beginning he has failed to comprehend the 
rebellion, while in his nature he is abnormal and eccentric, 
jumping like the knight on the chess board, rather than moving on 
straight lines. Undoubtedly the influence of such a man over 
the Pi'esident has not been good. But the President himself has 
been his own worst counsellor, as he has been his own worst 
defender. He does not open his mouth without furnishing evi- 
dence against himself. 

The brave words with which he accepted his nomination as 
Vice-President resounded through the country. He was elected. 
Then followed two scenes, each of which filled the people with 
despair. The first was of the new Vice-President taking the oath 
of office — in the presence of the foreign ministers, the judges of 
the Supreme Court, and the Senate — while in such a condition 
that his attempted speech became trivial and incoherent, and 
he did not know the name of the Secretary of the Navy, 
who is now the devoted supporter of his policy, as he has been 
his recent travelling companion. One month and one week after- 
wards President Lincoln was assassinated. The people, wrapt 
in affliction at the great tragedy, trembled as they beheld a 
drunken man ascend the heights of power. But they were gen- 
erous and forgiving — -almost forgetful. He was our President, 
and hands were outstretched to welcome and sustain him. His 
early utterances as President although common-place, loose and 
wordy, gave assurance that the rebellion and its authors would 
find little favor from him. Treason was to be made odious. 

Personal Relations with the President. 

It was at this "time that my own relations with him commenced. 
I had known him slightly while he was in the [Senate ; but I lost 
no time in seeing him after he became President. He received 
me kindly. I hope that I shall not err, if I allude briefly to what 



13 

passed between us. You are my constituents and I wish you 
to know the mood of the President at that time and also what 
your representative attempted. 

I was in Washington during the first month of the new admin- 
istration, destined to fill such an unhappy place in history. 
During this period I saw the President frequently, sometimes at 
the private house he then occupied, and sometimes at his office in 
the treasury. On these occasions the constant topic was " recon- 
struction," which was considered in every variety of aspect. 
More than once I ventured to press upon him the duty and the 
renown of carrying out the principles of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and of founding the new governments in the rebel 
States on the consent of the governed, without any distinction of 
color. To this earnest appeal he replied on one occasion, as I sat 
with him alone, in words which I can never forget : " On this 
question, Mr. Sumner, there is no difference between us. You 
and I are alike." Need I say, that I was touched to the heart by 
this annunciation, which seemed to promise a victory without a 
battle. Accustomed to controversy, I saw clearly that if the 
President declared himself in favor of the Equal Eights of All, 
the good cause must prevail witliout controversy. After express- 
ing to him my jo^ and gratitude, I remarked still furtlier, that it 
was important that there should be no division in the great Union 
party — that there should be no line run through it, on one side of 
which would be gentlemen calling themselves " the President's 
friends," but that we should be kept all together as one seamless 
garment. To this he promptly replied : " I mean to keep you 
all together." Nothing could be better. We were to be kept 
all together on the principle of Equal Rights. As I walked away 
from the President that evening, the battle of my life seemed to 
be ended, while the Republic rose before me, refulgent in the 
blaze of assured Freedom, an example to the nations. 

On another occasion, during the same period, the case of Ten- 
nessee was discussed. I expressed the hope most earnestly that the 
President would use his influence directly for the establishment of 
impartial suffrage in that State, saying that in this way Tennessee 
would be put at the head of the returning column and be made an 
example ; in one word, that all the other States would be obliged 
to dress on Tennessee. The President replied, that if he 
were at Nashville, he would see that this was accomplished. I 
could not help rejoining promptly, that he need not be at Nash- 
ville, for at Washington his hand was on the long end of the lever 
with which he could easily move all Tennessee ; referring of 
course to the powerful but legitimate influence which the Presi- 
dent might exercise in his own State by the expression of his 
desires. Let me confess that his hesitation on this occasion dis- 
turbed me ; but I attributed it to an unnecessary caution rather 
than to any infidelity. He had been so positive with me, how 
could I suspect him! 



14 

On other occasions the conversation was renewed. Such was my 

interest in this question, that I could not see the President with- 
out introducing it. As I wa^ about to return home, I' said that I 
desired, even at the risk of repetition, to make some parting 
suggestions on the constant topic, and that, witli his permission, 
I would proceed point by point, as was the habit of the pulpit 
in former days. He smiled and said pleasantly, " Have I not 
always listened to you ? " I replied, " You have, and I am 
grateful." After remarking that the rebel region was still in 
military occupation and that it was the plain duty of the 
President to use his temporary power for the establishment of 
correct principles, I proceeded to say : First ; See to it that no 
newspaper is allowed which is not thorouglily loyal and does not 
speak well of the National Government and of Equal Rights ; 
and here I reminded him of the saying of the Duke of Welling- 
ton, that in a place under martial law, an unlicensed press was 
as impossible as on the deck of a ship of war. Secondly ; Let 
the officers that you send, as military governors or otherwise, be 
known for their devotion to Equal Rights, so that their names 
alone will be a proclamation, while their simple presence will help 
educate the people ; and here I mentioned Major-General Carl 
Schurz, who still held his commission in the^ army, as such a 
person. Thirdly ; Encourage the population to resume the profit- 
able labors of agriculture, commerce and manufactures without 
delay ; but for the present to avoid politics. Fourthly ; Keep the 
whole rebel region under these good influences, "and, at the proper 
moment, hand over the subject of reconstruction with the great 
question of Equal Rights, to the judgment of Congress, where it 
belongs. All this the President received at the time with perfect 
kindness, and I mention this with the more readiness because I 
remember to have seen in the papers a very different statement. 

Only a short time afterwards there was a change, which seemed 
like a summerset or an apostacy ; and then ensued a strange sight. 
Instead of faithful Unionists, recent rebels thronged the Presidential 
ante-chambers, rejoicing in a new-found favor. They made speeches 
at the President, and he made speeches at them. A mutual sym- 
pathy was manifest. On one occasion the President announced 
himself a "Southern man," with " Southern sympathies," thus 
quickening that sectional flame which good men hoped to see 
quenched forever. Alas ! if after all our terrible sacrifices we are 
still to have a President who does not know how to spurn every 
sectional appeal and make himself the representative of all ! 
Unhappily, whatever the President said or did was sectional. He 
showed himself constantly a sectionalist. Instead of telling the 
ex-rebels that thronged the Presidential ante-chambers, as he 
should have done, that he was their friend ; that he wished them 
well from the bottom of his heart ; that he longed to see their 
fields yield an increase and peace in all their borders, and that, to 
this end, he counselled them to devote themselves to agriculture, 



15 

commerce and manufactures, and for the present to say nothing 
about politics ; — instead of this, he sent them away talking and 
thinking of nothing but politics, and frantic for the re-establish- 
ment of a sectional power. Instead of designating officers of the 
army as military governors, which I had supposed he would do, 
he appointed ex-rebels, who could not take the oath required by 
Congress of all officers of the United States, and they in turn 
appointed ex-rebels to office under them, so that participation in 
the rebellion found its reward, and treason, instead of being made 
odious, became a passport to power. Everywhere ex-rebels came 
out of their hiding-places. They walked the streets defiantly, 
and asserted their old domination. Under the auspices of the 
President, a new campaign was planned against the Republic, and 
they who failed in open war now sought to enter the very citadel 
of political power. Victory, purchased by so much loyal blood 
and treasure, was little better than a cipher. Slavery itself 
revived in the spirit of Caste. Faithful men who had been tram- 
pled down by the Rebellion were trampled down still more by 
these Presidential governments. For the Unionist there was no 
liberty of the press or liberty of speech, and the lawlessness of 
slavery began to rage anew. 

Every day brought tidings that the rebellion was re-appearing 
in its essential essence. Amidst all professions of submission 
there was an immitigable hate to the National Government, and 
a prevailing injustice to the frccdman. This was last autumn. I 
was then in Boston. Moved by a desire to arrest this fatal ten- 
dency, I appealed by letter to members of the Cabinet, entreating, 
them to stand firm against a " policy " which promised nothing 
but disaster. As soon as the elections were over I appealed 
directly to the President himself, by a telegraphic despatch, as 
follows : =— 

Boston, 12th Nov., 1865. 
To the President of the United States, Washington : 

As a faithful friend and supporter of your administration, I most 
respectfully petition you to suspend for the present your policy towards the 
rebel States. I should not present this pi'ayer if I were not painfully 
convinced that thus far it has tailed to obtain any reasonable guarantees for 
that security in the future which is essential to peace and reconciliation. 
To my mind, it abandons' the freedmen to the control of their ancient 
masters ; and leaves the national debt exposed to repudiation by returning 
rebels. The Declaration of Independence asserts the Equality of all men, 
and that rightful government can be founded only on the consent of the 
governed. I see small chance of peace unless these great principles are 
practically established. Without this the house will continue divided 
against itself. Charles Sumner, 

Senator of the United States. 

On reaching Washington Saturday evening, immediately before 
the opening of the last session of Congress, I lost no time in see- 
ing tlie President. I was with him that evening three hours. I 



16 

found him changed in temper and purpose. How unlike that 
President, who, only a few days after his arrival at power, had 
made me feel so happy in the assurances of agreement on the 
great question before the country ! He was no longer sympathetic 
or even kindly, but harsh, petulant and unreasonable. Plainly, 
his heart was with the ex-rebels. For the Unionist, white or 
black, who had borne the burthen of the day, he had little feeling. 
Perversely he would not see the bad spirit of the rebel States, and 
he insisted that the outrages there were insufficient to justify their 
exclusion from Congress. It was in this connection, that the fol- 
lowing dialogue ensued : The President. — " Are there no murders 
in Massachusetts ? " Mr. S. — " Unhappily, yes ; sometimes." 
The President. — "Are there no assaults in Boston? Do not men 
there, sometimes, knock each other down, so that the police is 
obliged to interfere ? " 31r. S. — " Unhappily, yes." The Presi- 
dent. — " Would you consent that Massachusetts, on this account, 
should be excluded from Congress ? " Mr. S. — " No, Mr. Presi- 
dent, I would not." And here I stopped, without remarking on 
the entire irrelevancy of the inquiry. I left the President that 
night with the painful conviction that his whole soul was set as 
flint against the good cause, and that by the assassination of 
Abraham Lincoln the Rebellion had vaulted into the Presidential 
chair. Jefferson Davis was then in the casemates at Fortress 
Monroe, but Andrew Johnson was doing his work. 

" Ah ! what avails it, 



If the gulled conqueror receives the chain, 
, And flattery subdues when arms are vain." 

From this time forward I was not in doubt as to his " policy," 
which asserted a condition of things in the rebel region inconsist- 
ent with the terrible truth. It was, therefore, natural that I 
should characterize one of his messages, covering over the enor- 
mities there, as " whitewashing.". This mild term was thought by 
some at the time to be too strong. Subseqvient events have 
shown that it was too weak. The whole rebel region is little better 
than a " whited sepulchre." It is that saddest of all sepulchres, 
the sepulchre of Human Rights. " The dead men's bones are the 
remains of faithful Union soldiers, dead on innumerable fields or 
stifled in the pens of Andersonville and Belle-isle ; also of constant 
Unionists, white and black, whom we are sacredly bound to pro- 
tect, now murdered on highways and byways, or slaughtered ait 
Memphis and New Orleans. The uncleanness is injustice, wrong 
and outrage of the most loathsome character. And the Presi- 
dent is engaged in "whiting" over these things, so that they 
shall not be seen by the American people. To do this he has 
garbled a despatch of Sheridan and has abused the hospitality 
of the country by a travelling speech, where every word that 
was not foolish, vulgar and vindictive, was a vain attempt at 
" whitewashing." 



17 

The Presidential Madness. 

Meanwhile the Presidential madness has become more than 
ever manifest. It has shown itself in frantic efforts to defeat the 
Constitutional Amendment proposed by Congress for adoption by 
the people. By this amendment certain safeguards are estab- 
lished. Citizenship is defined, and protection is assured at least 
in what are called civil rights. The basis of representation is 
fixed on the number of voters, so that if colored citizens are not 
allowed to vote they will not by their numbers contribute to 
representative power, and one voter in South Carolina will not be 
able to neutralize two voters in Massachusetts or Illinois. Ex- 
rebels who had taken an oath to support the Constitution of the 
Ujiited States are excluded from office, national or state. The 
national debt is guaranteed, while the rebel debt and all claim 
for slaves are annulled. But all these essential safeguards are 
rudely rejected by the President. 

The madness that would reject a proposition so essentially just, 
whose only error is its inadequacy, has broken forth naturally in 
brutal utterance, where he has charged persons by name with 
seeking his life, and has stimulated a mob against them. It is 
difficult to surpass the criminality of this act ; but thus far the 
old Greek epigram has been verified : — 

"A viper bit a Cappadocian's hide, 
Envenomed by the bite the viper died." 

Though the persons thus assailed have not yet suffered, the 
country has. The violence of the President has provoked vio- 
lence. His words were dragon's teeth which have already 
sprung up armed men. Witness Memphis ; witness New Orleans. 
Who can doubt that the President is the author of these trage- 
dies ? Charles IX. of France was not more completely the 
author of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, than Andrew John- 
son is the author of those recent massacres which now cry out 
for judgment. History records that the guilty king was pursued 
in the silence of night by the imploring voices of murdered men, 
mingled with curses and imprecations, while their ghosts stalked 
through his chamber, until he sweated blood from every pore ; 
and when he came to die, his soul, wrung with the tortures of 
remorse, stammered out to his attendant : " Ah ! nurse ! my 
good jiurse ! what blood ! what murders ! Oh ! what bad coun- 
cils I followed ! Lord God pardon me ! have mercy on me ! " 
Like causes produce like effects. The blood at Memphis and 
New Orleans must cry out until it is heard, and a guilty Presi- 
dent may suffer the same retribution which followed a guilty 
king. 

The evil that he has done already is on such a scale that it is 
impossible to measure it, unless as you measure an arc of the 
globe. I doubt if in all history there is any ruler, who in the 



18 

same brief space of time lias done so much. Tliere have been 
kings and emperors, proconsuls and satraps, who have exercised a 
tyrannical power ; but the facilities of communication now lend 
swiftness and extension to all evil influences, so that the President 
has been able to do in a year what in other days would have taken 
a life. Nor is the evil that he has done confined to any narrow 
spot. It is co-extensive with the Republic. Next to Jefferson 
Davis stands Andrew Johnson as its worst enemy. The whole 
has suffered ; but it is the rebel region which has suffered 
most. He should have sent peace ; instead, he sent a sword. 
Behold the consequences. 

In the support of his cruel " policy " the President has not 
hesitated to use his enormous patronage. President Lincoln 
said, familiarly, that, as the people had continued him in office, he 
supposed they meant that others should be continued in office 
also ; and he acted accordingly. He refused to make removals. 
But President Johnson thinks otherwise, and he announces in 
public speech that there must be " rotation in office ; " and then 
warming in anger against all who do not sustain his " policy," he 
says that he will " kick them out." Men appointed by the mar- 
tyred Lincoln are to be " kicked out" of office by his accidental 
successor, while pretending to sustain the policy of the martyr. 
The language of the President is most suggestive. He " kicks " 
the friends of his well-loved predecessor ; and he also " kicks " 
the careful counsel of that well-loved predecessor, especially 
insisting- that " we must build up from the sound material." 

What Remains to be Done. 

And now that I may give practical direction to these remarks, 
let me tell you plainly what must be done. In the first place. 
Congress must be sustained in its conflict with the One Maji 
Power, and in the second place, ex-rebels must not be restored 
to power. Bearing these two things in mind the way will be easy. 
Of course, the constitutional amendment must be adopted. " As 
far as it goes, it is well ; but it does not go far enougli. More 
must be done. Impartial suffrage must be established, A home- 
stead must be secured to every freedman, if m no other way, 
through the pardoning power. If to these is added Education, 
there will be a new order of things, with liberty of the press, lib- 
erty of speech and liberty of travel, so that Wendell Phillips may 
speak freely in Charleston or Mobile. There is an old English 
play, which goes under the name of the four " P's." Our pres- 
ent desires may be symbolized by four " E's," standing for Eman- 
cipation, Enfranchisement, Equality and Education. Let these be 
secured and all else will follow. 

I can never cease to regret that Congress has hesitated by proper 
legislation to assume a temporary jurisdiction over the whole rebel 
region. To my mind the power was ample and unquestionable, 



19 

whether in the exercise of belligerent rights or in the exercise of 
rights derived directly from the Constitution itself. In this way 
everything needful might have been accomplished. In the exer- 
cise of this just jurisdiction the rebel communities might have 
been fashioned anew, and shaped to loyalty and virtue. The 
President lost a great opportunity at the beginning. Congress 
has lost another. But it is not too late. If indisposed to assume 
this jurisdiction by an enabling Act constituting provisional gov- 
ernments, there are many things which Congress may do, acting 
indirectly or directly. Acting indirectly, it may insist that 
Emancipation, Enfranchisement, Equality and Education shall 
be established as a condition precedent to the recognition of any 
State whose institutions have been overthrown by rebellion. 
Acting directly, it may, by constitutional amendment or by 
simple legislation, fix all these forever. 

Impartial Suffrage must he Secured by the Nation and not left to 

the States. 

You are aware, that from the beginning I have insisted upon 
Impartial Suffrage as the only certain guarantee of security and 
reconciliation. I renew this persistance and mean to hold on to 
the end. Every argument, every principle, every sentiment is in 
its favor. But there is one reason, which at this moment I place 
above all others ; it is the necessity of the case. You will require 
the votes of colored persons in the rebel States in order to sustain 
the Union itself. * Without their votes you cannot build securely 
for the future. Their ballots will be needed in time to come 
much more than their muskets have been needed in time past. 
For the sake of the white Unionists in the rebel States and for 
their protection ; for the sake of the Republic itself, whose peace 
is imperilled, I appeal for justice to the colored race. Give the 
ballot to the colored citizen and he will be not only assured in 
his own rights, but he will be the timely defender of yours. It 
is by a singular Providence that your security is linked insep- 
arably with the recognition of his rights. Deny him' if you will. 
It is at your peril. 

But it is said, leave this question to the States ; and State rights 
are pleaded against the power of Congress. This has been the 
cry, — at the beginning to prevent efforts against the Rebellion, 
and now, at the end, to prevent efforts against the revival of the 
Rebellion. Whichsoever way we turn we encounter this cry. But 
if you yield now, you will commit the very error of Buchanan, 
when at the beginning he declared that we could not " coerce " 
a State. Nobody doubts now that a State in rebellion may be 
" coerced ; " and to my mind it is equally clear that a State just 
emerging from rebelHon may be "coerced" to that condition 
which is required by the public peace. 



30 

But there are powers of Congress, not derived from the rebel- 
lion, which are adequate to this exigency, and now is the time to 
exercise them and thus complete the work that has been begun. 
It was the Nation that decreed Emancipation, and the Nalion 
must see to it, by every obligation of honor and justice, that 
Emancipation is secured. It is not enough that Slavery is abol- 
ished in name. The Baltimore platform, on which President 
Johnson was elected, requires " the utter and complete extirpation 
of Slavery from the soil of the Republic ; " but this can be accom- 
plished only by the eradication of every inequality and caste, so 
that all shall be equal before the law. 

Be taught by Russia. The Emperor there did not cgntent him- 
self with a naked Proclamation of Emancipation. He followed 
this glorious act with minute provisions securing to the freedmen 
rights of all kinds, as to hold property, to sue and testify in court, 
to vote and to enjoij the advantages of education. All this was 
secured by the same power which decreed emancipation. 

Be taught also by England, speaking by her most illustrious 
statesmen, who solemnly warn us against trusting to any local 
authorities for justice to the colored race. I begin with Burke, 
wlio saw all questions with the intuitions of a statesman and 
expressed himself with the eloquence of the orator. Here are his 
words uttered in 1792 : — 

" I have seen ^vlult the colonial legislatures have done in reference to 
the improvenipnt of the condition of the negro. It is arrant triflin<^. 
They have don.^ little, and that little is good for nothing, because it does not 
carry with it the executory principle." 

Should we leave this question to the States we should find that 
all tliat they did would be " arrant trifling," and that it would 
want " the executory principle." 

This testimony of Edmund Burke was followed shortly after- 
wards by that of Canning, who in 1799, exclaimed,— 

" There is something in the relation between the despot and his slave, 
which must vitiate and render nugatory and null whatever laws the former 
might make for the benefit of the latter ; which however speciously these 
laws might be framed, however well adapted they might appear to the 
evils which they were intended to alleviate, must infallably be marred and 
defeated in the execution." 

Then again he says, — 

" Trust not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for 
slavery !_ However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it, they 
must be ineffectual in their application. It is in the nature of things that 
they should be so. Their laws can never reach, will never cure the evil. 
Ihere is something in the nature of absolute authority, which makes des- 
potism in all cases, and under all circumstances, an incompetent and untrue 



21 

executor even of its own provisions in favor of the objects of its power." 
— Canning's Speeches, vol. 1, pp. 193, 194. 

The same testimony was given at a later day by Brougham, 
who, in one of his most remarkable speeches, while protesting 
against- leaving to the colonies legislation for the freedmen, 
expressed himself as follows : — 

" I entirely concur in the observations of Mr. Burke, repeated and 
more happily expressed by Mr. Canning, that the masters of slaves are not 
to be trusted with making laws upon slavery ; that nothing they do is ^ver 
found effectual ; and that if by some miracle they ever chance to enact a 
wholesome regulation, it is always found to want what Mr. Burke calls the 
executory principle ; it fails to execute itself." — Brougham's Speeches, 
vol. 2, p, 219. 

Such is tlie concurring testimony of these three statesmen- 
orators, whose eloquent voices unite to warn us against trusting 
the freedmen to their old masters. 

Reason is in harmony with this authoritative testimony. Surely 
it is not natural to suppose that people, who have claimed property 
in their fellow-man — who have indulged that " wild and guilty 
phantasy that man can hold property in man " — will become at 
once the kind and ^ust legislators of freedmen. It is contrary to 
nature to expect it. Even if they have made up their minds to 
Emancipation, they are, from inveterate habit and prejudice, 
incapable of doing justice to the colored race. There is the 
President himself, who once charmed the country and the age by 
announcing himself as the " Moses " of their redemption ; and 
yet he is now exerting all his mighty -power against the establish- 
ment of those safeguards without which there can be no true 
redemption. In the discussions of the day the old pro-slavery 
spirit that was in him, with its hostility to principles and to men, 
comes out anew ; — as on the application of heat, the old tunes 
frozen up in the bugle of Baron Munchausen were set a-going 
and broke forth freshly as when the bugle sounded before. 
Peo.jlo do not change suddenly or completely. The old devils are 
not all cast out at once. Even the best of converts som^imes 
backslide. It is recorded by so grave a writer as Southey, in his 
history of Brazil, that a venerable woman accustomed to consider 
human flesh as an exquisite dainty, was converted to Christianity 
while in extreme old age. The faithful missionaries strove at 
once to minister to her wants and asked her if there was any 
kind of food which she needed. To all which the venerable con- 
vert replied : " My stomach goes against everything ; there is but 
one thing which I fancy I could touch ; if I had the little hand of 
a little tender boy, I think I could pick the bones ; but woe is 
me ! there is nobody to go out and shoot one for me ! " In simi- 
lar spirit our Presidential convert now yearns for a taste of those 
odious pretensions which were a part of slavery. 



22 

Now when a person thus situated, with great responsibilities to 
his country and to history, bound by pubHc professions and by 
political associations — who has declared himself against slavery 
and has every motive for perseverance to the end — when such a 
person openly seeks to preserve some of its odious pretensions, are 
we not admonished again how unsafe it would be to trust those 
old masters, who are under no responsibility and have given no 
pledges, with the power of legislating for freedmen ? I protest 
against it. 

I claim this power for the nation. If it be said that the power 
has never been exercised, then, I say, that the time has come 
when it should be exercised. I claim it on at least three several 
grounds. 

(1.) There is the Constitutional Amendment^ already adopted 
by the people, which invests Congress with plenary powers to 
secure the abolition of slavery, — aye, its extirpation, according to 
the promise of the Baltimore platform ; — including the right to 
sue and testify in court, and the right also to vote. The distinc- 
tion that has been iattempted between what are called civil rights 
and political rights is a modern invention. These two words, 
"civil" and "political," in their origin have the same meaning. 
One is derived from the Latin and the other from the Greek. 
Each signifies that which pertains, to a city or citizen. Besides, 
'if the elective franchise seem "appropriate" to assure the 
" extirpation " of slavery. Congress has the same power to secure 
this right whfcli it has to secure the right to sue and testify in 
courts, which" it has already done. Every argument, every 
reason, every consideration by which you assert the power for the 
protection of colored persons in what are called their civil rights, 
is equally strong for their protection in what are called their 
political rights. In each case you legislate to the same end, that 
the freedman may be maintained in that liberty which has so 
tardily been accorded to him, and the legislation is just as 
" appropriate " in one case as in the other. 

(2.) There is also that distinct clause of the Constitution, 
requiring tlie United States " to guarantee to every State in the 
Union a republican form of government.'^ Here is a source of 
power as yet unused. The time has come for its use. Let it be 
declared, that a State which disfranchises any portion of its citi- 
zens by a discrimination in its nature insurmountable, as in the 
case of color, cannot be considered a republican government. 
The principle is obvious, and its practical adoption would ennoble 
the country and give to mankind a new definition of republican 
government. 

(3.) But there is another reason which is with me peremp- 
tory. There is no discrimination of color in the allegiance which 
you require. Colored citizens, like white citizens, owe allegiance 
to the United States ; therefore, they may claim protection as an 
equivalent. In other words, allegiance and protection must be 



23 

reciprocal. As you claim allegiance of colored persons, you 
must accord protection. One is the consideration of the other. 
And this protection must be in all the rights of citizens, civil and 
political. Thus again do I bring home to the National Govern- 
ment this solemn duty. If this has not been performed in times 
past, it has been on account of the tyrannical influence of slavery, 
which perverted our government. But, thank God ! that influ- 
ence has been overthrown. Vain are the victories of the war, if 
this influence continues to tyrannize over the National Govern- 
ment. Formerly the Constitution was interpreted always for 
Slavery. I insist that, from this time forward, it shall be inter- 
preted always for Freedom. This is the great victory of the war, 
or rather it is the crowning result of all the victories. 

One of the most important battles in the world's history was 
that of Tours, in France, where the Mohamedans, who had come 
up from Spain, for three days contended with the Christians under 
Charles Martel. On this battle Gibbon remarks, that, had the 
result been different, " perhaps the interpretation of the Koran 
would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might 
demonstrate the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet." 
Thus was Christianity saved, and thus has Liberty been saved by 
our victories. Had the rebels prevailed. Slavery would have had 
voices everywhere, and even in tlie Constitution itself. But it is 
Liberty now that must have voices everywhere, and the greatest 
voice of all in the national Constitution and the laws made in 
pursuance thereof. 

In this cause I cannot be frightened by words. There is a cry 
against " centralization," " consolidation," " imperialism," all of 
which are bad enough when dedicated to any purpose of tyranny. 
As the House of Representatives is renewed every two years, it 
is inconceivable to suppose that such a body, fresh from the people 
and about to return to the people, can become a tyranny, espec- 
ially when it seeks safeguards for Human Rights. A government, 
inspired by Liberty, is as wide apart from tyranny as Heaven from 
Hell. There can be no danger in Liberty assured by central 
authority ; nor can there be any danger in any powers to uphold 
Liberty. Such a centralization, such a consolidation, — aye, Sir, 
such an imperialism would be to the whole country a well-spring 
of security, prosperity and renown. To find danger in it is to 
find danger in the Declaration of Independence and the Consti- 
tution itself, which speak with central power ; it is to find danger 
in those central laws which govern the moral and material world, 
binding men together in society and keeping the planets wheeling 
in their spheres. 

Often during the war the cause of our country seemed to appear 
in three different forms, each essential in itself and yet together 
constituting one unit. It was like the shamrock, or white clover, 
with its triple leaf, originally used to illustrate the Trinity. It, 
was Three in One. These three different forms we're first, the 



24 

national forces ; secondly, the national finances ; and thirdly, the 
ideas which entered into the controversy. The national forces 
and the national finances have prevailed. The ideas are still in 
question , and even now you debate with regard to the rights of citizen- 
ship. Nobody doubts that the army and navy fall plainly within 
the jurisdiction of the National Governnient, and that the finances 
fall plainly within the jurisdiction of the National Government ; 
but the rights of citizenship are as thoroughly national as the 
army and navy or the finances. Obviously, you cannot without 
peril cease to regulate the army and navy ; nor without peril cease 
to regulate the finances ; but there is equal peril in abandoning the 
rights of citizens, who, wherever they may be, or in whatever 
.State, are entitled to protection from the Nation, — "the very 
least as feeling her care and the greatest as not exempted from 
her power." An American citizen in a foreign land enjoys the 
protecting hand of the National Government. He should not 
enjoy that protecting hand less at home than abroad. 

Our Present Duty. 

Fellow-citizens, — As I am about to close, allow me to gather the 
whole case into a brief compass. The President, wielding the 
One Man Poiver, has assumed a prerogative over Congress uuerly 
unjustifiable, and has undertaken to dictate a fatal " policy " of 
reconstruction, which gives sway to rebels, puts off the blessed 
day of security and reconciliation, and leaves the best interests of 
the Republic in jeopardy. Treacherous to party — treacherous 
to the great cause — and treacherous to himself, he has set up his 
individual will against the people of the United States in Con- 
gress assembled. Forgetful of truth and decency, he has assailed 
members as " assassins," and has denounced Congress itself as 
a revolutionary body, " called or assuming to be Congress," 
and " hanging on the verge of government ; " as if this most 
enlightened and patriot Congress did not contain the embodied will 
of the American people. To you, each and all, I appeal to arrest 
this madness. Your votes will be the first step. The President 
must be taught that usurpation and apostacy cannot prevail. He 
who promised to be Moses, and has become Pharaoh, must be over- 
thrown, and the Egyptians that follow him must share the same 
fate, so that it shall be said now as aforetime, " And the Lord 
overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea." 



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